[Ainaserkewen]

Was "The new Shadow" a glimpse at present day people? I get the impression from all the books that Tolkien wrote that Men were the babies of the story. Sure they did evil things and made mistakes, but it wasn't their fault. Young and impressionable. Perhaps in the time of the elves, Men could be viewed as children but when the elves leave, men have "grown up" and taken the wrong road. I get the feeling that Men were "innocent" until the elves left, then all went to hell.

To whoever said they thought the story of the war of the ring was a tragity, you're right. I just learned this in English [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]. A tragity, by definition, is a story that starts out okay, gets worse and worse until the climax of worseness, then gets a little better, but not up to the level that it started at. I think this describes LOTR pretty well.

As for your querie, Angry Brandybuck, it's a mystery to all who read this story. We have no idea where the mind of Tolkien was going with this new chapter. My guess is that it was an evil cult and the old man probably didn't want to be part of it. That's my best idea anyway.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 3:26 PM January 21, 2004: Message edited by: Ainaserkewen ]